Remember back in the day when the original Pokémon was the biggest deal in the world? You know what the first non-Game-Boy Pokémon game was? That’s right. Pokémon Freaking Snap.
Everybody was stoked over this game. I mean really, this was a huge deal for us oldschool Poké-freaks who lived in a bizarre world filled with rumors of Mew being under the truck by the S.S. Anne or the Celadon Dept. store thirsty girl giving you a “Pikablu” if you gave her enough drinks. Pokémon Snap was a dream fulfilled. Finally we got to see Pokémon in those glorious, blocky, N64 polygons.
The premise of the game is pretty simple: Go around and take pictures of Pokémon. You get points based on the pictures you take. Then you can sort the pictures into albums and stuff. I know it sounds like some sort of Flash or Facebook game gone wrong or something, but somehow the game managed to be fiendishly addicting.
Also, hitting Mew in the head with an apple over and over again in the last level was hilarious. Especially because it would go “Me-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-eew” as you did so.
…actually, though, there is one reason in particular why this is today’s Classic Video Game Monday. That reason is the Poké Flute song that can be heard here from about 0:16 to 0:31:
I have hummed and whistled this tune all the freaking time ever since this game came out eleven years ago.
Now that’s staying power.
*whistles it again*
Sigh. In my mind, N64 is in the “modern console game system” category, and eleven years ago I was doing the same job I am today. Thank you so very much for making me feel ancient. In my day, we had 160×100 resolution and eight simultaneous colors, and we were happy!
/wave cane
/shout at kids to get off my yard
<3
ELEVEN YEARS?! I can’t believe it’s been that long!
This game was a big part of my childhood. I can also say it’s one of the few reasons I still have my N64 set up on my TV even now.
Only a couple of months ago some friends and I cracked out Pokemon Snap at a party, it was great 🙂 And a bit surprising how many of the “tricks” we remembered (how to get surfing Pikachu, Dugtrio, etc.)
Oh man, I only JUST found out how to catch Mew in the original Red/Blue last week. Gotta fish out the old gameboy, I know it’s here somewhere!
You know what happened recently? I had a high score Mew that was almost perfect. It was 10 points off!
And my brother erased the game.
ARGH!
Oh man!!! I love this game. I spent hours and hours trying to get a picture of Pikachu riding Articuno, but only ever got the dang bird. Back in the day, this was my go-to activity when I’d been drinking. One night in particular when I’d had waaay too many tequila shots, I sat down in my armchair and turned on the N64, because drunk or not, even though I could hardly even see the TV, I was going to play me some Pokemon GOSH DARN SNAP!
I wanted this game SO BAD when it came out. It would have been my first pokemon game. The idea of being a nature photographer in a game sounded fun to me.
You’re good! I couldn’t whistle that tune if my life depended on it. Got to replay this game one day…